Artificial eyelashes



y 20, 19585 M. B. GOODMAN 2,835,259

ARTIFICIAL EYELASHES 14 l L15 I M v v v.

Filed Nov. 5, 1954 F5 INVENTOR WTKN EY United States PatentfO 2,835,259 ARTIFICIAL EYELASHES Margaret Bertrand Goodman, New York, N. Y. Application November 3, 1954, Serial No. 466,587 6 Claims. (Cl. 132-53) The present invention relates to artificial eyelashes and it particularly relates to a novel construction of artificial eyelashes and to the method of making the same.

It is among the objects of the present invention to provide a simple, lightweight, readily applied, attractive and non-disfiguring artificial eyelash which may be readily manufactured at low cost and which may be readily packaged and applied.

Another object is to provide a novel, integral one piece eyelash construction which will eliminate expensive assembly and attachment operations, and which may be readily applied to the eyelid without difiiculty and without unduly Weighting it without requiring considerable time and skill, and without becoming too apparent.

In making eyelashes according to present systems, the hairs or fibres must be laboriously and with diificulty applied to a flexible base material by glue or other a'dhesive, or even be sewed or aifused, and in some cases by actually tieing each individual eyelash to a support thread or strip.

Furthermore, after this prolonged and expensive hand assembly operation, it is then necessary to color the lashes and such final application of color usually results in a non-even coloring elfect and also in an uneven thickness of the coating, with the thickness of the color coating frequently affecting the appearance of the artificial eyelash.

These artificial eyelashes frequently fall off or dislodge themselves into the eye, and undesirable marks may be readily observed due to the jointing of the artificial eyelash to a supporting base by adhesive, tieing, sewing or glue.

It is among the particular objects of the present invention to provide a novel artificial eyelash product in which the eyelash may be prepared and merchandised without glueing, tieing or other bulky and laborious attachment of the lash to a support strip, and in which there is no likelihood of individual lashes becoming dislodged, and moreover in which the color as well as the curvatureof the lash may be desirably controlled so as to give the most desirable and attractive elfect.

A further object is to provide a novelartificialeyelash construction which will closely approximate when attached to the eyelid the desired position, shapeand color of the hairs of :a natural eyelash so that its artificial character cannot become readily detected, and so that the eyelashes may be readily producedin the desired shape, form, color, length and number with a relatively small number of ope-rations and with a minimum of manual labor, and without any complicated tieing, or individual glueing operations as may be necessary where the separate lashes must be tied or mounted in position.

Another object is to provide a novel artificial eyelash construction which may be readily packaged and merchandised, and which will readily conform to the shape of the eyelid when in use, and which nevertheless will be simple in construction and readily manufactured with a minimum of manual labor, and which furthermore will be flexible when applied to the body andyet have sufficient stiffness to enable ready application to the eyelid.

Still further objects and advantages will. appear in the more detailed description set forth below, it being "Ice lhal understood, however, that this more detailed description is given by way of illustration and explanation only and not by way of limitation, since various changes therein may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In accomplishing the above objects, it has been found most satisfactory according to one embodiment of the present invention to form the entire base with attached extending eyelashes from a single sheet of mate-rial, and desirably from a plastic sheet of material, so that the base support as well as the eyelashes thorns-elves will be integral and be die cut or stamped out of such sheet of material.

All this may be done by die stamping sheets of material Which may have previously been tinted or colored so as to give the desired hair color to the eyelashes and the desired flesh color to the attachment portion where the eyelashes are joined.

At the same time, the shapes, curvatures and directions of the eyelashes in respect to the base attachment edge may be controlled during the die cutting and manufacturing operation, and it is not necessary to resort to any tieing, glueing or other laborious operations.

The individual hair structures, although being flat since they are stamped or die cut from a sheet material, will nevertheless most desirably give the appearance of natural circular cross-section eyelashes, and depending upon the thickness and curvature of the plastic sheet material will extend as desired from the point of attachment to the eyelid.

The base where the lash-es are all joined together may be provided with a pressure sensitive adhesive which will enable it to be carried upon a carrier strip and at the same time permit the cut eyelash structures to be readily detached from the carrier strip and then be attached to the eyelid by the user.

Normally, it is not necessary to resort to additional hand lacquer curling or special coloring since the sheet of plastic material may have been previouslyprinted with the color by intaglio so as to give the desired gra dation of shade or tint that may be desired.

The sheet material may be slit so that the full width thereof will be divided into fine hairlik'e strand-s remaining integral with a supporting base, or if desired spaces may be obtained by altogether cutting with individual strands.

Since the lashes will be integral with the supporting base there will be no tendency to fall off and the only adhesive agent used is that which serves to attach the base strip to the eyelid.

By suitable printing operation the portion to be die cut or slotted to form the eyelashes may have a delicate color shading from one tone at the base to another at the tips, and also a controlled curling may be obtained by application of a coating on the surface of the undivided lash structure, which coating upon drying shall protect the curling efiect.

A particular feature of the present invention resides in the fact that the lashes may be slanted or curved outwardly and laterally to give various desirable effects which will enhance the appearance of the artificial eyelash.

A wide variety of suitable thickness of synthetic films' ferent effects.

At the same time as the printing operation the adhesive may also be applied to the base portion and as the eyelashes are die cut, slit and slotted, they may be directly carried to or deposted upon a carrier strip or carrier sheet which will not retain any of the pressure sensitive adhesive and which may be readily Stripped therefrom.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the ini vention consists of the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts as hereinafter more specifically described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein is shown an embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that changes, variations and modifications can be resorted to which fall within the scope of the claims hereunto appended.

In the drawings wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a sheet or strip of film material showing how the color may be applied thereto in predetermined portions preparatory to die cutting the eyelashes.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a portion of a strip or sheet of plastic material showing the second operation after Fig. 1 wherein the adhesive strip is applied to the portion of the film or sheet which is to service the base.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view showing the next step after Fig. 2 where the sheet of adhesive and color printed material as shown in Fig. 2 is directly applied to a carrier sheet.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary transverse sectional view upon the line 44 of Fig. 3 showing the combination of the stripable carrier sheet of Fig. 3 and the adhesive and color printed plastic sheet.

Fig. 5 shows the eyelashes after they have been die cut and slit with the encircling waste material stripped therefrom and with the die cut eyelashes ready to be stripped from the carrier sheet upon usage.

Fig. 6 is a side perspective view upon an enlarged scale as compared to Fig. 5 showing one of the die cut eyelashes after it has been removed from the carrier strip and before application to the eye.

Fig. 7 is a front perspective view of an alternative form of artificial eyelash where the adhesive base is made sufficiently large to cover the entire eyelid.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view showing an alterantive form of eyelash similar to Fig. 6 except that the eyelashes are all of the same length and curved to the side.

Fig. 9 is an alternative form of die cut eyelash showing the eyelashes approximately terminating at the same distance from the base strip but each at different length and inclination.

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary side perspective view upon an enlarged scale as compared to Figs. 6 to 9 of a double ply eyelash construction where each eyelash constitutes a bent strip.

Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a sheet of plastic material 10 which may for example consist of the polyester material known as ethylene terephthalate which is sold under trademark of Mylar polyester film.

This film may have been rolled or cast, and it may if desired be coated to give it the desired body and texture and opacity and surface appearance. In one form of the invention'the film was coated or passed through a solution of a plastic carrying a dclustering agent such as finely divided chalk, talc or silica.

For example, the polyester film may be passed through or coated with a suspension of finely dispersed powdered silica in a solution of polyvinyl chloride resin in a ketone solvent, a satisfactory solvent being methyl ethyl ketone.

After the solution had been applied or coated upon the plastic sheet, the excess was removed by passing between squeeze rolls and the solvent was permitted to evaporate. This sheet 10 was then the base sheet for forming the die cut eyelash.

Upon this sheet desirably there is imprinted a color which will approximate the color of the eyelash. As shown in Fig. 1 the color may be applied in a chordal shape as indicated at 11 with a top straight edge 12 and a lower circular or curved edge 13, and this may be done in two rows as indicated at 14 and 15. Depending upon the size of the sheet, of course, any number of rows of material may be so applied.

By the use of intaglio procedures the color may be gradated to give the desired final effect.

Although a wide variety of printing solutions, pastes or inks may be employed, with either a water or oil base, it has been found satisfactory according to one embodiment of the present invention to use as a base a solution of cellulose acetate and methyl ethyl ketone containing as pigments finely divided carbon black, burnt umber or antimony trioxide.

This printing ink or lacquer may be printed, as indicated upon Fig. 3, on the plastic sheet, or the eyelashes may be given other shapes such as rectangular shapes or various irregular shapes as for example shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9.

After the color has been applied the pressure sensitive adhesive material as indicated at 16 may then be printed upon the sheet directly above and touching the straight edge 12 and designed to extend the full width of the eyelash.

This double printed sheet 10 as shown in Fig. 2 is then directly applied to a carrier sheet 17 with the adhesive facing 16 down against the carrier sheet.

The carrier sheet is desirably so surfaced or so surface treated that it will hold the adhesive faces 16 yet permit them to be readily stripped away by the user.

The composite sheet of Figs. 3 and 4 is then. die cut with the eyelash portion 11 being slit or slotted and with the edges13, 18 and 19 being die cut without at the same time die cutting the carrier sheet 17. Then the residual material indicated at 20 may be stripped off of the carrier sheet 17 leaving the spaced eyelash units A in position thereon. When used, a single unit A may be removed, as indicated at Fig. 7, and attached to the eyelid by means of the adhesive face 16.

Until this is done the carrier strip 17 forms a convenient medium of packaging, wrapping, rolling, storage and merchandising of the integral eyelash constructions.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 6 the eyelashes B all extend transversely and perpendicularly to the integral base portion C which carries the adhesive portion 16 and the eyelashes are of decreasing length on each side of the central portion D. This is one of the preferred constructions.

In the form of Fig. 7, which may be just as readily formed by the procedure set forth in connection with Figs. 1 to 5, the attachment portion C may cover the entire eyelid and the adhesive face 16 is shown on the back thereof, and it extends from the curved edge 19' to the line 12'.

The eyelashes B then extend outwardly in radiating fashion all being of the same length between the side edges 21.

In the embodiment of Fig. 8 a narrow adhesive strip C is employed but the eyelashes B are spaced by slotting, and all curve in one direction. For example, the eyelash units A of Fig. 8 would be in pairs with one pair for the left eye having the lashes extending to the left, and the other pair for the right eye with the lashes extending to the right.

' In the embodiment of Fig. 9 the unit A has a rectangular attachment band C but the eyelashes B all vary in inclination from the central straight eyelashes 22 to the increasingly obliquely inclined eyelashes 23 at the side edges of the unit.

In Fig. 10 is shown still a dilferent type of unit A where the adhesive portion C also serves to enable attachment of a folded back edge 24 of the eyelashes B. These eyelashes are folded as indicated at 25 so that each eyelash will consist of a double strip, and they will give a relatively more massive effect than in the embodiments of Figs. 6 to 9.

' the lash area may be 0.5 inch by 1.5 inch, with the number of individual lashes varying from 120 to 180 and a preferable mean of 150.

The width of the individual lashes may vary between .008 and .012 inch and the spacing between the lashes may vary from .003 to .008.

The base areas C to C may be translucent and uncolored and they desirably are tinted or printed with a flesh color unless the sheet has originally been made of a special color.

The lashes B to B are at all times dark colored, delustered, and preferably of uneven widths.

As typical of another type of film which may be employed a mixture of 55 parts by weight of powdered polyvinyl chloride resin and 45 parts by weight of trioctyl phosphate plasticizer was spread in a layer .002 inch thick and heated at 300 F. for five minutes. The treatment converted the mixture into a soft, flexible, transparent film.

To this film was then applied another mixture, colored, which defined the lash area and which had the following composition:

5 parts by weight trioctyl phosphate 2 parts by weight copper bronze powder 8 parts by Weight carbon black 60 parts by weight powdered polyvinyl chloride resin Enough commercial normal heptane to give a smooth paste.

This mixture was then applied through a stencil rather than through a printing roller and the area covered by the stencil was defined so as to give the eyelashes shapes as indicated in Figs. 6 to 10.

After the colored material had been applied the film was desirably heated to 300 F. for five minutes to cure the coating.

After printing the film it might then be delustered by running through embossed rollers or by pressing between layers of cotton fabric.

It is of course possible to cut the units A to A from the strips by hand but machine die cutting is preferable.

It is also desirable where the attachment portion occupies considerable area as in Fig. 7 to provide breathing openings as indicated at 26 in Fig. 7, although rows of these openings may also be utilized as indicated at 27 in the embodiment of Fig. 6.

Other plastic sheet materials may be employed such as polyethylene sheets or even various types of cellulosic sheets such as cellulosic acetate and ethyl cellulose. Various thickness of film may be employed with the preferred thickness being greater than .0002 and ranging up to .001 inch.

The eyelash directions may be 90 to the base, 60 to the base or 45 to the base, depending upon the effect which is to be achieved, and not only may the eyelashes be black or brown but they also may be colored so as to give unique effects such as blue, red, pink.

The portion of the artificial eyelash which is to be attached to the eyelid, indicated at C in Fig. 6, C in Fig. 7, C in Fig. 8, C in Fig. 9 and C in Fig. 10 may either be transparent or flesh-color. The breathing openings shown in Figs. 6 and 7 may also be eliminated, if desired.

While there has been herein illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that applicant does not limit herself to the precise construction herein disclosed, and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, what is claimed is:

1. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash unit, formed by slitting and slotting a thin sheet of material with an adhesive border at one side and outwardly projecting eyelash colored thin narrow fiat rectangular cross section strips at the other side, said strips and said border being integrally joined and being formed from the same thin sheet of material without separation of the strips and the border.

2. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash unit, formed by slitting and slotting a thin sheet of material with an adhesive border at one side and outwardly projecting eyelash colored thin narrow flat rectangular cross section strips at the other side, said adhesive edge consisting of a rectangular area extending the full width of the unit and said eyelashes extending outwardly transversely perpendicularly to said adhesive edge, said strips and said border being integrally joined and being formed from the same thin sheet of material. without separation of the strips and the border.

3. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash unit, formed by slitting and slotting a thin sheet of material with an adhesive border at one side and outwardly projecting eyelash colored thin narrow flat rectangular cross section strips at the other side, said eyelash strips extending at an inclination to said adhesive edge and being of varying length from side to side of the unit, said strips and said border being integrally joined and being formed from the same thin sheet of material without separation of the strips and the border.

4-. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash unit, formed by slitting and slotting a thin sheet of material with an adhesive border at one side and outwardly projecting eyelash colored thin narrow flat rectangular cross section strips at the other side, said unit having an adhesive edge sufficiently wide to cover the eyelid, said strips and said border being integrally joined and being formed from the same thin sheet of material without separation of the strips and the border.

5. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash unit, formed by slitting and slotting a thin sheet of material with an adhesive border at one side and outwardly projecting eyelash colored thin narrow flat rectangular cross section strips at the other side, said eyelash strips being curved so that they will curve upwardly and outwardly when attached to the eyelid, said strips and said border being integrally joined and being formed from the same thin sheet of material without separation of the strips and the border.

6. An integral one-piece artificial eyelash formed by cutting, slitting and slotting a thin sheet of plastic material into a base portion to conform to and be adhesively attached to an eyelid and a plurality of thin narrow strips forming part of said sheet and projecting outwardly integrally from one edge thereof.

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